Spotlight on Lloyd Price

Cousin Brucie interviewed Lloyd Price on his show tonight.  He is now 84 years old and is going strong.  He will be playing later this week at the Cutting Room in Manhattan.

Bob Dylan Receives Grammy Nomination for Triplicate

It was announced today that Bob Dylan for Best Traditional Pop Album for Triplicate.  I must be honest by saying that Triplicate is not my favorite Dylan album since he did not write the songs for it. Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and others are much better singers of the adult standards that he has on that 3 album set.  In any event in his career, he has been nominated for 38 Grammys and won 10 times.

My New Hi-Tech Toy is An Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8 Tablet

I guess I did my part in making Jeff Bezos a multi-billionaire by purchasing a Kindle Fire HD8 Tablet.  Back in June 2012, I bought the first generation Kindle Fire to supplement my laptop.  I still have that tablet which is still working but felt that after 5 years I needed to upgrade.  This new model is much faster and even includes Alexa which I also have on the Amazon Echo.  I think the Kindle Fire is much less expensive than an iPad and serves the same purpose.

Afternoon of college basketball at Barclays Center

We usually go to several college basketball games every year as the ticket prices are much lower than those of professional basketball.  Today there was a doubleheader featuring Brigham Young (BYU) vs U Mass in game 1 and Minnesota vs Alabama in game 2.  Our plan was to see game 1 and leave at halftime of game 2.  It is just too long to sit through two games.

U Mass held a comfortable lead for most of the game but BYU rallied in the second half and won with a dunk by Yoeli Childs.

Game Recap

We left the second game with U Mass leading Alabama 41-29 at halftime.  However, we missed all the excitement late in the game.  As a result of a scuffle 7 Alabama players were ejected leaving the team with only 5 players. One other player fouled out while another had to leave after an injury.  This left 3 Alabama players against 5 for Minnesota.  The final score was 89-84 in favor of Minnesota.

Game Recap

Wheel of Fortune and Petula Clark at the Paley Center Today

We went to the Paley Center for Media today to see a special exhibit for the 35th anniversary of the syndicated version of the show.  The exhibit featured photos, memorabilia, videos, and more.  There was a video featuring versions of the show in 45 countries.

From there we went to the library where we saw a recording of an interview with Pat Sajak, Vanna White and others that was done early this month at the Paley Center.  They spoke of the history of the show including some strange occurrences.

In December we will be seeing a performance by Petula Clark at BB Kings.  I searched their database on her and found a classic program when Petula Clark and Harry Belafonte reunited for the fortieth anniversary of the 1968 variety show that sparked a racial controversy.  We even saw that show that was seen on NBC in 1968.

I must say that the Paley Center is a treasure.  Once I retire in January I will have more opportunities to sample radio and TV shows in their collection.  Since I am a member, I can do that for up to 3 hours.

The Pizza Came Late For The Focus Group and I Was Nailed on My Performance Appraisal

I am writing this entry at the suggestion of Laura Nygard, sports fan extraordinaire.  A focus group is a management tool which elicits feedback from the consumers of a product or service.  A small group is recruited and is asked questions from a moderator. The session is recorded for future reference.  I feel that this method has minimal effectiveness since a small number is not a representative sample of the population of users

Let’s turn the clock back to 1996 when the library manager wanted to run focus groups to determine what issues are bothering our users.  He wanted groups of undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty.  I volunteered to coordinate this effort.

To get students to participate, we offered a free lunch.  I could not anticipate how difficult it would be to recruit students for this effort.  I sent out mass emails and tried to recruit people face to face, but they just did not want to be bothered.  It was minutes before the session was to begin and I was still trying to recruit students.  Meanwhile, the person from the dining services delivered the pizza to the wrong side of the building.  The focus group had started without the food.  The boss came in and went into a rage over this.  We finally located the food in another part of the building and brought it over.

The boss trashed me in front of other people which was completely unfair to me in any event.  The person who delivered the pizza to the wrong room should have been reprimanded.  My boss had a very good memory and nailed me on my performance appraisal several months later.  His performance review sessions were traumatic experiences.  At least he didn’t fire me.

The boss took the tape from the focus group and played it on his car radio on the way home.  Some people listen to rock, others jazz, but the micromanager listened to focus group recordings.

Random Comments Regarding Retirement

Today I shredded all my performance appraisals over the past 25 years. This includes the one where my boss trashed me since the food came late for the focus group. That is a legend in the NJIT Library.

If you are reading this blog entry, you are welcome to come to my retirement party on December 7.  I certainly hope Mr. Met shows up

Anyway, there is exactly one month to go until my last day on December 22.